Church Slavonic language and Bible translations in the modern life of the Russian Orthodox Church

Church Slavonic language and Bible translations in the modern life of the Russian Orthodox Church

The inter-conciliar presence of the Russian Orthodox Church has developed the projects “Church Slavonic Language in the Life of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 21st Century” and “The Church’s Attitude to the Existing Various Translations of Biblical Books.”

These projects and their wide discussion in the church press, including in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, caused a mixed reaction in the Orthodox community.

Of great concern are the emerging trends that indicate far-reaching plans for reforming worship and a possible transition to worship in Russian.

Judging by the discussion on the website of the Inter-Council Presence, there is every reason for such fears - comments are studied before being posted on the website. In addition, in some dioceses the reading of the Apostle and the Gospel in Russian is being introduced during services.

In a number of seminaries and academies, sad changes have occurred - quotations from the Bible are required to be cited not according to the Church Slavonic text, but according to the Russian Synodal translation, based on a non-canonical archetype of the text. Even 20 years ago, the Moscow Theological Academy required citing only the canonical Church Slavonic text of the Bible!

The basis for such changes is the difficulty of understanding liturgical texts in Church Slavonic. In fact, this is far from true, as I know from personal experience.

I was born into an Orthodox family, and I went to church for as long as I can remember. The old age is already approaching.

Yes, the understanding of divine service came only with age, and it was of great importance that, while still in school and at the institute, I completely read the Bible, the catechism, dogmatic theology and studied literature on the history of the Church - everything that I could get in Soviet times. Only self-education helped in understanding liturgical texts.

Worship can be performed in any language. The question is dogmatically indifferent. But the introduction of revised texts will affect every parishioner.

Language reform is very difficult from the point of view of practical implementation and can have negative, far-reaching consequences.

Estimated reaction of the laity.

People are accustomed to praying in Church Slavonic. There are many millions of such people. The translation will affect not only public worship, but also all prayers, including those read daily at home: “Our Father,” “Heavenly King,” “I Believe,” and all the others.

A person raised in the Church from childhood knows almost by heart all the main hymns and readings not only of the liturgy, but also of the all-night vigil. The Hours, the Six Psalms, many of the Gospel Conceptions are so well known that some illiterate old woman even notices the wrong accents!

Public prayer (chants, readings during services) is perceived not only through comprehension by the mind, it goes straight to the soul. A unique prayer harmony is created, which will be disrupted by the introduction of a new text and will require many years of adaptation.

Often the text of a prayer book is not perceived in its exact meaning, but, depending on the state of a person, is understood individually, in relation to the state of the soul!

The discomfort caused by the new texts of prayers will cause a massive rejection of the language and will inevitably lead to a split.

The people rejected the Russian language from the Renovationists, determining by language which church not to go to, and people of the older generation remember this.

I am very concerned about the fact that the parishioners themselves do not raise questions about creating a new translation or modifying liturgical texts. This fact was left out of consideration, but the guardian of the faith is the fullness of the Church named after Christ - the Orthodox people!

The directive introduction of new texts against the will of the Orthodox people will be perceived as violence against the soul of a person, every Orthodox person - he will be forced to pray differently. Who can imagine the reaction of the majority of Orthodox parishioners?

Consequences for the structure of spiritual life.

I have never read in the proposed texts and comments that prayer forms the structure of spiritual life, and yet this is the most important point. Any errors in editing texts will inevitably affect the structure of spiritual life.

Consequences for Russian culture.

Few people think about the role of the Church Slavonic language in the formation of colloquial speech and literary language.

The common people hear a beautiful language with a huge number of synonyms, people hear the correct emphasis (in liturgical books it is placed on every word), which rarely happens in everyday life, and, most importantly, they get used to it.

The abandonment of the Church Slavonic language will inevitably have a negative impact on the modern spoken and literary Russian language and will cause impoverishment of speech and lead to a deterioration in understanding the language of the classics of Russian literature. This is especially important in our time, when even the language used on television, radio and other media is not only extremely poor, but also full of colloquialisms, words from the everyday life of representatives of the criminal environment, and even obscene expressions. Literary language is heard almost nowhere.

Current practice of modernizing liturgical language.

Statements about the rigidity of the Church Slavonic language are completely untrue.

Russification of texts is constantly happening. But it is done so reasonably and carefully that it does not cause rejection and organically fits into the existing structure of the language.

Perhaps everyone knows about the change in the words of the morning prayer: the archaism “In vain the Judge will come...” has been replaced by “Suddenly the Judge will come...”. There are many such examples.

Difficulties in translation.

For some reason, it is not taken into account that the Church Slavonic language is a specific language containing unique dogmatic and liturgical terminology, which practically does not exist in the Russian language. And what is in the Russian language are largely borrowed Church Slavonic words.

Translation into Russian will affect the content of the texts due to the absence of a number of grammatical constructions in modern Russian, for example, the aorist and plusquaperfect.

Even Yungerov’s translation of the Psalter into Russian cannot be considered a full translation - a significant part of the words of the Church Slavonic language has been transferred to the Russian text.

A number of widely used words of the Church Slavonic language do not have not only synonyms, but even suitable analogues in modern Russian. For example, the words “grace”, “pea-bearing”, “unenviously bestowing” cannot be conveyed in one word, although their meaning is clear. Replacing many words with phrases will only complicate the listening and understanding of the text, and specific terminology is generally untranslatable.

The influence of the personal qualities of translators on editing and translation is of deep concern. What is required is deep churchliness, love for the Church Slavonic language, the ability to value every word and its meaning, knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, dogma, and Church history. The cause of concern can be expressed in the words of V.S. Chernomyrdin: “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.”

The most alarming symptom seems to be the desire to rule according to the Greek original. A very careful approach is required here: there are no high-quality dictionaries; Ancient Greek words have many meanings, and this polysemy does not coincide not only with the polysemy of Russian words, but also with the polysemy of Church Slavonic ones. An ancient Greek phrase can be understood this way and that way, therefore the Church Slavonic text is of great value, since it records the understanding of the Greek text by the Greeks who lived in ancient times, which is inaccessible to us.

Revision of all musical compositions.

Almost all musical compositions, including works by Bortnyansky, Arkhangelsky, Tchaikovsky, will have to be reworked due to changes in the text. One can only guess what this may lead to, but it is obvious that during translation the melodiousness of the language and the melodiousness of the texts will be lost forever, and the treasures of church music will fall out of liturgical use.

The main reason for the misunderstanding of worship.

The reason for the misunderstanding of liturgical texts in Church Slavonic lies not in unfamiliar archaic words and grammatical phrases, but in ignorance of the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, the history of the Church, the content of celebrated holidays, and the lives of saints.

The texts in liturgical books are very informative and concise. Sometimes one word, geographical name or proper name should remind you of the most important event, the description of which may take several pages. Therefore, it is pointless to make a new translation, it will not give anything. We need to train parishioners. To do this, it is necessary to develop programs and literature accessible to the untrained reader.

About translating the Bible into Russian.

It is alarming that seminaries and academies are already quoting the Bible in Russian.

Discussions on this topic do not address the most important issues.

The draft of the Inter-Council Presence talks about the requirements for a new translation of the Bible:

(1) “would take into account the achievements of modern science (including biblical archaeology, textual criticism, comparative Semitology, etc.) in understanding the biblical texts, as well as the historical and cultural realities behind them;

(2) would be based on modern translation theory.”

These points indicate a tendency towards a revision of the canonical text of the Holy Scriptures, and in fact open the way to secularization and a departure from the archetype of the text that forms the basis of the canonical text of the Bible. The very manuscripts that the compilers of the canonical text of the Bible used have not reached us.

Text archetype

The Synodal translation of the Old Testament was made from the Jewish Masoretic text, which was formed in the middle of the first millennium after the birth of Christ. The Slavic translation of the Old Testament was completed from the Septuagint - a translation of the Old Testament into ancient Greek, carried out by 70 interpreters in 280 BC.

The peculiarity of the Septuagint is that the interpreters used the manuscripts available to them to correct inaccuracies. This is the oldest critical text of the Old Testament.

In a number of places, the difference between the Masorah (the canonized text of the Old Testament in Hebrew) and the Septuagint is so fundamental that it cannot be explained by differences in manuscript readings. There are conceptual differences.

This is expressed especially sharply in places in the Old Testament where it speaks of

resurrection. For example, in the Psalter almost all the places where it talks about the resurrection are translated in the Masorah as about the uprising. The translation into Russian has been corrected, apparently, taking into account the Septuagint, but the Protestant and Catholic translations do not have these corrections, and the difference is huge.

For a long time, scholars believed that the Masoretic Text was the most accurate. But in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew texts were found that are the archetype of the Septuagint, and texts that are the archetype of the Masorah. This allows us to conclude that at that time there were two different texts of the Old Testament. I will take the liberty of expressing the perhaps insufficiently substantiated opinion that these were texts used by the Pharisees (Septuagint archetype) and Sadducees (Masorah archetype).

The above quotation (1) from the Inter-Council Presence project speaks of planning a critical revision of the Septuagint archetype.

Unfortunately, this will certainly lead to additional distortions of the text of the Old Testament.

Currently, there is no representative sample of Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament (as well as manuscripts of the New Testament) - the Library of Alexandria burned down, a huge number of manuscripts were lost, including during the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders.

70 interpreters had access to those manuscripts that no longer exist. Their translation, in modern terms, is a critical scientific translation. The same applies to the compilers of the canonical text of the New Testament.

At present, there are no materials necessary for scientific critical work on the archetype of biblical texts - the most ancient manuscripts have perished.

Enthusiasm about the Qumran finds should be assessed critically - there are grounds for assertions about the existence of the Septuagint archetype in the Hebrew language, about the presence of two editions of the Old Testament, but no more. We cannot even approximately estimate the quality of the manuscripts found at Qumran.

The achievements of modern science will in no way be able to compensate for the loss of the most ancient manuscripts, also because these scientific developments arose with the goal of at least to some extent compensating for the irreparable losses of manuscripts, those manuscripts on the basis of which the canonical texts were compiled!

The Qumran finds, 2,000 years distant from us, testify to the highest degree of preservation of the texts of the Old Testament unchanged. The discrepancies that have arisen over two millennia are minimal, but we have no grounds to assert that the texts of the Qumran community are completely reliable.

In such a situation, making changes to the canonical text of the Bible will bring harm, the extent of which is difficult to even assess.

It is unacceptable to correct the canonical Greek text.

It is a sad tendency to ignore, in favor of a secular approach, the dogmatic position that the Church is the custodian of the Holy Scriptures. Meanwhile, this is precisely what is evidenced by the emerging tendency to give priority to secular science.

Quality of translation into Church Slavonic language

I didn't have to read about it. It's a pity.

If you compare the texts of the Bible in ancient Greek and Church Slavonic, an amazing thing will be revealed.

I had to compare the texts of the Psalter. Even the word order in the poems is the same! For example, the fifth word in a verse in ancient Greek almost always coincides with the fifth word in a verse in Church Slavonic.

Amazing translation quality! Essentially, this is a subscript. I don’t think that such quality of translation can be achieved today.

Difficulties of editing and translation

Currently, there are no specialists who know the ancient Greek language as well as, for example, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Maximus the Greek and other Greeks who participated in the creation of the Church Slavonic translation of the Bible. Even the pronunciation of the ancient Greek language has been lost.

Due to the lack of high-quality dictionaries of the ancient Greek language and, at the same time, the polysemy of ancient Greek words, it is almost impossible to translate the Bible directly from ancient Greek; editing the text is extremely difficult. That is why the planned revision of the Church Slavonic text seems to be an extremely unfounded and even destructive undertaking.

For many years now I have been working on translating prayers and the Psalter into Latvian.

An amazing thing was discovered that I could not even think about before starting work: the most difficult thing is to correctly understand the Slavic text. This understanding should be much deeper than what is perceived by the person praying - I know from personal experience!

The texts of the Holy Scriptures and prayers are paradoxical in perception: often, even knowing the true meaning of the text, a person perceives it in relation to the state of his soul. This imposes additional restrictions on translation - it is necessary to strive to translate as accurately as possible, in no case allowing arbitrary specification or replacement of the text with a commentary, even a correct and brief one.

The modern Western concept of translation tends to create texts that are “understandable to a housewife.” In addition to allowing deviations from the texts of the Holy Scriptures, such a concept seems very strange: is a modern housewife, in terms of intellectual level, inferior to a person who lived 2,000 - 3,000 years ago and did not even graduate from high school?

The most important rule when translating Biblical texts is the use of the interpretations of the Holy Fathers for the correct understanding of the translated Holy Scripture. Without this, serious mistakes are inevitable.

The quality of the translation of the Bible into the Slavic language is so great that, alas, attempts to interfere with the text can only spoil it. And that’s why you can’t touch him!

Another thing is a new translation of the Bible into Russian. It should be done from the Church Slavonic text, necessarily relying on the interpretations of the Holy Fathers. The Greek text is important for clarifying ambiguities, but nothing more (for example, the word “mouth” can mean both “mouth” and “words”, but can be checked from the Greek canonical text).

Translating the Bible into Russian from the canonical text is a separate important problem, while working on it, one cannot touch upon the existing Church Slavonic translation: these are two different issues and it is unacceptable to mix or combine them.

From the experience of translation into Latvian

The situation with liturgical texts and translation of the Bible into Latvian is very difficult. The first translations of liturgical texts and prayer books appeared in the first half of the 19th century, but the Bible was not translated into Latvian from the Orthodox canonical text (the Protestant translation of the Vulgate, the canonical Latin translation, was used).

The end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century was a period of rapid development of Latvian national culture. At this time, the Latvian literary language received great development, Germanisms were eliminated, and a transition was made from Gothic to the regular Latin script. Significant changes have occurred in the literary language.

In the 30s of the twentieth century, a prayer book, a service book, a missal, musical editions of services for the twelfth holidays and other musical editions were revised and published.

Despite the relatively short period of existence of the original texts of prayers in Latvian (less than 100 years), the corrected translations were not accepted by all parishes and were implemented very slowly.

During the period of persecution of the Church, work on translations was stopped.

In the 90s of the twentieth century, when the persecution of the Church stopped, the problem of publishing prayer books, liturgical texts and texts of the Holy Scriptures in the Latvian language became very acute.

The first editions of calendars and prayer books were prepared and carried out by His Eminence Alexander, Metropolitan of Riga and All Latvia, while he was still a priest. These publications became a model and example of a deeply ecclesiastical approach to the publication of prayer books in the Latvian language.

In subsequent years, with the blessing of His Eminence Alexander, Metropolitan of Riga and All Latvia, a commission was created by the Synod of the Latvian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to translate prayers and liturgical texts into the Latvian language.

The most difficult were the first years of the commission's work, when the concept of translation was developed.

The main thing in the work of the commission of the Synod of the LOC MP was the strict observance of all the blessings of His Eminence Alexander, Metropolitan of Riga and all Latvia.

The translation was carried out from the Church Slavonic text, Greek was used only to clarify difficult-to-understand passages. Available translations (if any) were taken as a basis. Minimal text editing was carried out. When translating previously unpublished prayers, the translation tradition and, to the maximum extent possible, the style of existing translations were preserved. In parallel with the translations, a dictionary of the Church Slavonic-Latvian language was prepared.

The first big task of the commission was the translation of the complete prayer book into Latvian. The Latvian Christian Academy provided assistance in the translation. The prayer book was kindly received by the Orthodox Latvian flock.

At the same time, individuals who did not have and did not want to have the Archpastoral blessing also worked on translations. These “translators” did not understand the principles of ecclesiastical translation. The reluctance to work with the blessing of the Archpastor led to serious mistakes, among which it is necessary to note a complete departure from previously existing translations and attempts to translate from the Greek text. One of the so-called “translation” groups published a prayer book without the Archpastor’s blessing, which was distinguished by many inaccuracies. For example, in the prayer “To my Queen Offering” the words “feed me” were translated (in reverse translation) “feed me.”

Currently, the translation commission of the Synod of the LOC MP is working on a new translation of the Psalter into Latvian.

The translation of the Psalter is made from Church Slavonic; the Greek text is used only in rare cases for clarification. For reference, the existing translations of the Psalter into Latvian and Yungerov’s translation into Russian are used (unfortunately, in Yungerov’s translation a number of words are borrowed from Church Slavonic without translation into Russian). To understand the text, the Explanatory Psalter of Zigaben is used.

Among the difficulties encountered during translation are:

• correct understanding of the text;
• accuracy of translation without introducing comments or personal understanding of the text into the translation;
• maintaining conciseness.

Some passages cannot be understood without patristic commentary, so it is intended not to change the Biblical text, but to make footnotes with the explanation of the Holy Fathers.

Holy Scripture must be translated as accurately as possible. There is no other way for the Orthodox.

The text of Holy Scripture and the commentary are not the same thing. Even in terms of volume, Zigaben’s Explanatory Psalter is many times larger!

The work of translating prayers and Holy Scripture requires great humility and dedication; it is unacceptable to introduce personal opinions and understandings.

There are different translation errors, for example, the words “To the Chosen Voivode” are translated into English as “To thee, the Champion Leader”. What may the Lord deliver us from!

Afterword

The Church Slavonic language in the worship of the Russian Orthodox Church is of fundamental importance.

Refusal to use the Church Slavonic language will not only cause irreparable harm to worship and prayer practice, but will also cause a schism, which will be taken advantage of by the enemies of Holy Orthodoxy.

The trend towards abandoning the Church Slavonic language is very alarming. Parishioners do not demand that the service be translated into Russian. The question is initiated mostly by non-church people.

To improve parishioners’ understanding of divine services, programs should be developed in which, when studying Biblical history, Church history, and religious doctrine, a connection with liturgical texts will be established as the material is presented.

For example, when studying the crossing of the Red Sea, it is necessary to point to the prototype of the Mother of God and the dogmatist, to make reference to the Irmos and to the biblical songs on Holy Saturday, and when studying the Babylonian captivity, to recall the divine service of Holy Saturday. When talking about Dathan and Aviron, one should mention when they are remembered in the canon, and, going through the parable of the Good Shepherd, one should recall the text of the dogmatist with the words “the sheep found a pea.”

To our deepest regret, there are no such programs and literature, and without such a study of the Bible, Church history and doctrine, it is simply impossible to understand worship. This is exactly what you need to work on and direct your efforts into this area!

Regarding the translation of the Bible, the situation is completely incorrect. There is a canonical text. Its editing is practically impossible due to the lack of ancient manuscripts. They died. This loss is irreplaceable.

The tendency towards an accurate translation of the Old Testament is unfounded - a significant part of the original texts were lost during the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and they were restored from memory, but the originals of these restored manuscripts have not survived. The oldest manuscripts of the New Testament have not survived either. there is and never will be anything better than the existing canonical text .

I suppose that, apart from the Church Slavonic text of the Bible, there is no more accurate translation of the Greek canonical text of the Bible into any language.

Translation of the Greek canonical text of the Bible into Russian is necessary, but one must work selflessly, in great humility and self-denial.

I do not understand the phrase “preparation of Russian-language lectionaries” from the document “The Church’s Attitude to the Existing Various Translations of Biblical Books” (IV a). Lectionaries is a Catholic term, but we, Orthodox, are divided into conceptions, and not into lectionaries...

We have the greatest treasure - Orthodox worship in Church Slavonic and the Slavic Bible. It is our duty not only to preserve this treasure, but also to make it accessible to the Orthodox people.

So let’s teach people, because this is our sacred duty, and not destroy our values!

Archpriest Nikolai Tikhomirov, rector of the Holy Trinity Zadvinsky Church, teacher at the Riga Theological Seminary

In the tenth century, the Bible was translated into a language understandable to the inhabitants of ancient Rus'. It was translated by two monks and missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Some historians of Russia call them “the first teachers and educators of the Slavs.” They made their translation of the Bible into the Slavic language using the Slavic alphabet they developed. This alphabet, called the “Cyrillic alphabet” after one of its creators, marked the beginning of Russian writing. Over the centuries, the Russian language has evolved and changed, but the ancient Slavic translation of the Bible by Cyril and Methodius remained in use for many centuries. The language of this Bible began to be called Church Slavonic.

With the advent of printing in Rus', they first began to print books of the Holy Scriptures in the Church Slavonic language. In 1564, the founder of the printing business in Russia, the “first printer” Ivan Fedorov, published the book “Apostle,” which included the Scriptures of the New Testament: the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles. This book in the ancient Slavic language was the first to be published in Russia. And in 1581, the complete Bible was printed in Church Slavonic for the first time. However, in its text there were sometimes errors and inaccuracies. In subsequent editions, efforts were made to correct these errors.

By decree of Empress Elizabeth, a carefully corrected Church Slavonic Bible, the so-called “Elizabethan”, was published in 1751, the text of which was verified with the ancient Greek translation - the Septuagint. The Elizabethan Bible, almost unchanged, is still used in the liturgical practice of the Russian Orthodox Church.

However, it is clear that only those who know the Church Slavonic language well can read and understand the text of this Bible. Over the centuries, this language has become more and more different from the developing Russian language and is becoming more and more incomprehensible to the people. Therefore, starting from the 16th century, attempts were made to translate the Bible into Russian.

In the first half of the 16th century, a native of Polotsk, doctor of medicine, Francis Skaryna, translated all the Scriptures of the Old Testament into the contemporary language of southwestern Russia. The translation he made from Jerome's Latin Bible was published in 1517-1525. in Prague and Vilna (now Vilnius). In 1703, Tsar Peter I decided to publish the New Testament in Russian. He instructs the German pastor Gluck, known for his philological works, to translate it. Working in Moscow, Pastor Gluck completes the translation. But in 1705, Pastor Gluck died, and after his death the translation he left behind disappeared. Some historians believe that this translation was stolen and destroyed by opponents of the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures in a language understandable to the people, who were afraid that this would serve as the beginning of a reform movement in Russia.

In 1813, an important event took place in the spiritual life of Russia: the Russian Bible Society was founded, which set as its goal the printing and distribution of books of Holy Scripture among the peoples of the country. It was decided to sell them at a cheap price and distribute them free of charge to the poor. In 1815, after returning from abroad, Emperor Alexander I ordered “to provide Russians with a way to read the Word of God in their natural Russian language.” The question of the Russian translation of the Bible was raised again.

The Russian Bible Society took responsibility for publishing the books of Holy Scripture in Russian; the translation was carried out under the leadership of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Finally, in 1818, the first edition of the four Gospels, in parallel in Russian and Slavic, came out of print, and in 1822 the New Testament was printed in its entirety for the first time. Then they began to translate and print the books of the Old Testament. At the same time, translations of the Holy Scriptures were made into the languages ​​of other peoples of Russia.

But some representatives of the highest church authorities had a negative attitude towards the activities of the Bible Society. They believed that the Bible should be in the hands of the clergy and that the people should not be allowed to read and study it on their own. In 1824, Metropolitan Seraphim asked the Tsar to ban the Bible Society. In April 1826, by decree of Emperor Nicholas I, the activities of the Society were terminated. By this time, the printing house of the Russian Bible Society had managed to print about a million copies of the books of the Holy Scriptures in 26 languages ​​of the peoples of Russia. After the Society's activities were banned, work on the Russian translation of the Bible was suspended. In 1825 the sale of the New Testament in Russian was stopped.

However, supporters of the publication of the Russian Bible, despite the oppression, did everything possible to achieve their goal, believing that another favorable time would come, and the people would receive the Holy Scriptures in their native language. Only in 1858, thirty-two years after the prohibition of the activities of the Bible Society, the hopes of the advocates of publishing the Russian Bible came true: Emperor Alexander II allowed the translation and printing of the Holy Scriptures in Russian. The translation was to be carried out under the direction of the Synod (the highest authority of the Orthodox Church).

A lot of work has been done to ensure that the Russian translation of the books of the Holy Scriptures corresponds as closely as possible to the texts of the ancient originals, and also has literary merits. In 1862, forty years after the first edition of the Russian New Testament, its second edition, somewhat improved, was published in more modern Russian.

It was decided to re-carefully prepare a translation of all the books of the Old Testament. For this purpose, in 1860, a special committee was elected at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. The translation of the Old Testament was done by professors of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy: M.A. Golubev, E.I. Lovyagin, P.I. Savvaitov, a famous archaeologist and historian, D.A. Khvolson, a Christian of Jewish origin, Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leipzig. Professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy M.S. Gulyaev also worked a lot on the translation.

The translation of the Old Testament was done from the ancient Hebrew original. The translators were also guided by the Greek text of the Septuagint, used the Latin translation of Jerome and the previously made Russian translation. Finally, in 1876, the complete Russian Bible came out of print for the first time. Its text is sometimes called “synodal”, since it was published under the auspices of the Synod. This happened almost three centuries after the appearance of the first printed Church Slavonic Bible.

The language of the Russian Bible, accurate in its rendering of the sacred original, has undoubted literary merits. Thanks to its emotionality and rhythm, the Russian translation is close in form to prose poems. The publication of the Russian Bible was an important event in the history of Russian Christianity and Russian culture. Reading the Holy Scriptures in their native language, millions of people found genuine spiritual values ​​in it, gained faith and peace with God.

Review of some Russian Bible translations

Elizabethan Bible

in Church Slavonic, 1751.

Sample:

Archbishop MEFODIUS (M. A. Smirnov)

: “The Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Romans, with an interpretation confirmed by the sayings of the Holy Fathers and other important writers,” Moscow, 1792 (second edition, revised, published in 1815).

Archim. FILARET (V. M. Drozdov):

“Notes guiding a thorough understanding of the book of Genesis, which also includes a translation of this book into the Russian dialect,” 1819; Moscow, 1867. (This work was reprinted in the early 1990s in the series “Patristic Heritage” under the title “Creations of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna on the book of Genesis”, as well as by V.A. Kabanov under the title “GENESIS in translation Philaret Metropolitan of Moscow", M.: 2002)

RBO

“Our Lord Jesus Christ Holy Gospel, from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in Slavic and Russian dialect”, St. Petersburg, 1819; “Our Lord Jesus Christ New Testament, in Slavic and Russian,” St. Petersburg, 1821. “Our Lord Jesus Christ New Testament,” St. Petersburg, 1821; Leipzig, 1850; London, 1854, 1855, 1861. (In 2000, the RBO carried out a reprint of this translation from the 1824 edition: “The New Testament in the translation of the Russian Bible Society.”)

RBO

(under the leadership of Archbishop Philaret [V.M. Drozdov] and Archpriest G.P. Pavsky) published the Octateuch, 1825 (“The Bible. Eight Books of the Old Testament. Pentateuch. Joshua. Judges. Ruth”, London, 1861, 18622); “The Psalter, or the Book of Praises in Russian”, St. Petersburg, 1822; Leipzig, 1852; London, 1858.

G. P. Pavsky

translated the Gospel of Matthew, 1819 (this work was included in the translation of the New Testament of 1821). He also independently translated all the books of the Old Testament in 1820-1835 (the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Proverbs of Solomon were published in 1861-1866; translations of the remaining books were not published).

Archim. Macarius (M. Ya. Glukharev)

translated almost all the books of the Old Testament in 1834-1845 (the translation was carried out from Hebrew, and not from Church Slavonic); his translations (of some prophetic books in two editions) were published in Moscow in the 1860s. (Since 2000, the RBO has been reprinting this translation, originally published in the Orthodox Review magazine: “The Pentateuch of Moses in the translation of Archimandrite Macarius.”)

Sample:

Vadim (pseudonym of V.I. Kelsiev):

"Bible. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, translated from Hebrew, regardless of the insertions in the original and its changes in the Greek and Slavic translations. Old Testament. The first section, which contains the Law, or the Pentateuch. Translation by Vadim", London, 1860.

Sample:

Ep. Agafangel (A.F. Soloviev):

“The Book of Job with brief explanations in Russian translation”, Vyatka 1860, 1861; this text was republished by V.A. Kabanov entitled “JOB. Translated by Agafangel, Archbishop of Volyn and Zhitomir. (1861)"

I. P. Maksimovich

translated the following books: Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes (published in the 1860s).

M. S. Gulyaev

translated the books of Kings, Chronicles (published 1861-1864).

M. A. Golubev, D. A. Khvolson, E. I. Lovyagin, P. I. Savvaitov

translated and published the entire Old Testament in 1861-1871. It was this work that served as the basis for the Synodal Translation of the Old Testament.

RBO.
Synodal translation.
Complete Russian Bible. 1876. The most popular Russian translation. To this day it is published in huge quantities.

Sample:

L. I. Mandelstam

translated the Torah in 1862, as well as the Psalms. Literal translation in favor of Russian Jews", Berlin, 1864, 1865, 1872.

Book P. (pseudonym?)

: “Books of Holy Scripture in the Russian translation of the book. P. (historical books)", St. Petersburg, 1865.

V. A. Levinson, D. A. Khvolson

translated the entire Old Testament, which was published in London in 1866-1875 (this two-volume work was regularly published in Vienna and Berlin until 1914 under the title “The Holy Books of the Old Testament, Translated from the Hebrew Text. For Jewish Use”).

Sample:

I. Gorsky-Platonov:

“Psalms in Russian translation”, 1868, as well as “The Book of Exodus”, 1891.

A.-I. L. Pumpyansky:

"Psalms of David. Jewish text with Russian translation", Warsaw, 1872, as well as Proverbs of Solomon, St. Petersburg, 1891.

O. N. Steinberg

translated the books of Joshua, Judges, 1874-1875, “The Book of the Prophet Isaiah with a literal Russian translation”, Vilna, 1875; “The Pentateuch of Moses with a literal Russian translation,” 1899.

Sample:

Ep. Porfiry (K. A. Uspensky):

“The Book of Esther in Russian translation from the Greek text”, 1874; “The Psalter in Russian translation from Greek”, Kyiv, 1874-1875; St. Petersburg, 1893, “The Four Books of Maccabees”, Kyiv, 1873.

Sample:

I. G. Gershtein, L. O. Gordon

translated the Pentateuch, which was published in 1875.

P. A. Yungerov

translated about fifteen Old Testament books from ancient Greek. They were originally published in Kazan, 1882-1911.

Sample:

L. N. Tolstoy

: “Connection, translation and study of the 4 Gospels”, Geneva, 1892-1894; Moscow, 1907-1908;

V. A. Zhukovsky

: “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, Berlin, 1895, 1902.

K. P. Pobedonostsev

: “The Holy Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in Slavic and Russian languages ​​with the addition of the Russian text in a new edition”, St. Petersburg, 1903; “The Epistles of the Apostle Paul in a new Russian translation”, St. Petersburg, 1905; "New Testament. Experience in improving the translation into Russian of the sacred books of the New Testament", St. Petersburg, 1906.

A. S. Khomyakov

translated and published abroad the epistles to the Galatians and Ephesians (they were later published in the PSS, vol. II. Theological works. Fifth edition. Moscow, 1907).

A. Efros

: “Song of Solomon”, St. Petersburg, “Pantheon”, 1909; “Song of Solomon. Translation from Hebrew", St. Petersburg, 1910, Book of Ruth, Moscow 1925.

Ep. Antonin (A. Granovsky)

: “The Book of Proverbs of Solomon.
Russian translation of the book from a parallel critical edition of the Hebrew and Greek texts with the application of the Slavic text", 1913 .
Probatov Vasily.

Poetic transcriptions of the Gospel and the book of Psalms. First half of the 20th century.

Sample:

Ep. Cassian (Bezobrazov)

and others: “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, BFBS, London, 1970 (subsequently republished many times by various organizations, most recently by the Russian Bible Society).

Sample:

S. S. Averintsev

published a translation of the book of Job in “Poetry and Prose of the Ancient East”, Moscow, 1973; “The World of the Bible”, Moscow, 1993. “Collected Works / Ed. N.P. Averintseva and K.B. Sigov. Translations: Gospels. Book of Job. Psalms. Per. from ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew.”, K.: SPIRIT AND LITERA, 2004.

D. Yosifon

: “Five Books of the Torah”, Yerushalayim, 1975; "The First and Last Prophets", Yerushalayim, 1978; "Ketuvim", Yerushalayim, 1978.

K. I. Logachev

: “The Gospel according to John in the new Russian translation”, OBO, 1978; “The Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Translation from the 'text of the majority'", "Literary studies", 1991.

Living Bibles International

: “The beginnings of the Christian faith. Retelling of the seven books of the New Testament", 1984.

World Bible Translation Center

: “Good News from God. New Testament. Translation from Greek text", Moscow, 1989; “Good News. New Testament. New translation from the Greek text", Moscow, 1990; "The Bible. Modern translation of biblical texts", Moscow, 1993; 1997.

Sample:

L. Lutkovsky

: “Gospel”, Moscow: Friendship of Peoples, 1991.

Sample:

E. G. Yunz

: “The Book of Ecclesiastes”, journal. "Questions of Philosophy", vol. 8, 1991; “The Gospel as presented by Luke”, M.: Protestant, 1994; "The Book of Jonah", journal. "The World of the Bible", vol. 4. M.: 1997; "The Book of Ruth", journal. "The World of the Bible", vol. 5. M.: 1998.

M. I. Rizhsky

: “The Book of Job: From the history of the biblical text”, Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1991. “The Book of Ecclesiastes”, Novosibirsk, 1995.

International Bible Society

: “Word of Life. The New Testament in Modern Translation,” Living Bible. Int., Stookholm, 1991;

Sample:

“The Bible for Our Lives, New Testament”, 1999; "Being. Translation of the International Bible Society", BBI, 1998

Work is underway to translate the entire Old Testament into modern Russian.

V. N. Kuznetsova

: “Good News: The New Testament translated from ancient Greek”, Moscow, RBO, 2001.

Sample:

I. Sh. Shifman

: “Teaching. Pentateuch of Moses", Moscow: Republic, 1993.

P. Gil

(under the general editorship of
G. Branover
): “The Pentateuch and Haftarot. Hebrew text with Russian translation and classical commentary 'SONCHINO'", "GESHARIM" 5761/"Bridges of Culture", Moscow, 2001, 2006.

Geli Vishenchuk

: “New Testament Scriptures. Comments. Second, revised edition", AMG Int., Chattanooga, 2001.

V. A. Gromov

(editor): “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ, edited by V. A. Gromov,” USA, Evangelical Bible Translators, Int., ed. “Esther”, Ukraine, 1997; "Gospel of the Kingdom", 2000.

S. V. Lezov

: “As presented by Mark” in his book “History and Hermeneutics in the Study of the New Testament”, Moscow: Eastern Literature, 1996.

Pearl of the Carpathians

: “The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Acts of the Apostles”, GBV, Germany, 1997.

K. G. Kapkov

: “Canonical Gospels. New Russian edition", Moscow, 1997.

Slavic Bible Foundation

: “The Gospel of Mark. Gospel of John. Epistle to the Romans. Apocalypse", St. Petersburg, 1997.

Live Stream

: "New Testament. Restorative translation", Anaheim, 1998.

M. G. Seleznev

(editor of the series “Old Testament. Translation from Hebrew”) and others: “The Book of Genesis”, Russian State University for the Humanities, 1999; “Exodus”, Russian State University for the Humanities, 2000; “Parables. Book of Ecclesiastes. Book of Job", Russian State University for the Humanities, 2001; “The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah”, RBO, 2001. (A translation of the entire Old Testament into modern Russian is planned to be published by 2009, work is also underway to create a Jewish-Russian interlinear translation of the Old Testament)

Sample:

Dov-Ber Haskelevich

(under the general editorship of
G. Branover
): “Tehilim. With a new Russian translation and a brief commentary,” Jerusalem: SHAMIR, 5759/1999.

Al Salam

: “The Holy Book. Semantic translation of selected items from Taurat and Inzhil”, Bishkek, 2000.

M. P. Kulakov

: “The New Testament in modern Russian translation”, Institute of Bible Translation in Zaoksky, 2000; “New Testament and Psalter in modern Russian translation”, 2002.

Sample:

SHAMASH

(translation from English by
A. Dolbina, V. Dolbina
): “The Jewish New Testament / Translation of the New Testament, reflecting its Jewish essence, performed by David Stern <eng. ed. 1989>", Finland, 2001.

Hieromonk Ambrose (Timrot)

: “Psalter. New translation from the Greek text of 70 interpreters", M.: 2002.

"Central Asian Scripture in Russian"

: "Holy Bible. / Meaningful translation of Taurat, the Book of Prophets, Zabur and Injil", Istanbul Publishing House, 2003.

WatchTower

: "Christian Greek Scriptures - New World Translation", Rome, 2001.

K. I. Logachev

: “Greek-Russian New Testament for translators and interpreters of the Holy Scriptures (16).

The Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Galatians,” Bible Association, Bible Institute, 1992; “Greek-Russian New Testament (20-21). First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians", Institute of Biblical Textual Studies and Biblical Translations of St. Petersburg State University, 1995.

A. A. Alekseev

(chief editor) and others: “The Gospel of Luke in Greek with interlinear Russian translation”, Institute of Bible Translation, Stockholm - Moscow, 1994; “The Gospel of Matthew in Greek with interlinear Russian translation”, Stockholm - Moscow: Institute of Bible Translation, 1997; “New Testament in Greek with interlinear translation into Russian”, St. Petersburg: RBO, 2001.

D. P. Reznik

: “The Epistle of James in Greek with interlinear translation into Russian”, Kiev: Mission “Serving the Chosen People”, 1997
.
A. Vinokurov

: “Interlinear translation of the Old and New Testaments into Russian” (The project is currently at the stage of its development), 2002-2007.

Sample:

V. Zhuromsky

(chief ed.): “Interlinear Greek-Russian New Testament / Literal Modern Translation”, Zhitomir, “Ukrainian Society of Grace”, 2006.

Sample:

and

+ Strong's Dictionary (1.28 MB)

Sample:

Translation of the books of Jonah and Job by Ilya Karpekin. Based on the English translation of Sir Lancelot by C. L. Brenton.

Sample:

Pavlodar translation.

2007. This trial translation is an attempt to overcome the eternal dilemma of biblical translators - what is better - to be closer to the letter of the original or to express the author’s thoughts in modern language. In parallel with the expressive paraphrase in modern Russian, there is an ancient Greek original with interlinear translation so that the reader can compare the texts and independently draw conclusions regarding their meaning.

When developing this publication, four different dictionaries of the ancient Greek language were used, and the experience of creating about 20 of the best modern translations was also studied. The critics were linguists, proofreaders and people with theological education from different CIS countries.

Sample:

The review uses materials from Stanislav Tampio